I really like MS Visual C++ Express Edition's code editor. You can easily check #defines, function parameter options, and other things just my moving your mouse over something. You also get a list of member functions when you type the . or -> after an object of a class (you might not know what most or any of that means yet - I find it helpful when using DirectX, where you have lots of functions and classes that you haven't written yourself and don't know the inner workings of). I don't particularly mind the rest of the compiler, but I'm sure other people do, if for no reason other than it's Microsoft. Another nice compiler is Dev-C++, or wxDev-C++.